Sugar Grove police investigating child abduction attempt

SUGAR GROVE – Police are investigating a report of an attempt by a middle-aged man to abduct an 11-year-old girl.

Sugar Grove police said officers were called Tuesday night to the area of McCannon Street and Bastian Drive, about two blocks west of Kaneland John Shields Elementary School, for a report of a possible abduction attempt.

Police said a girl, 11, told them she was sitting on a bench at the west end of Volunteer Park around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday when a white, older Chevrolet Astro van stopped on the street in front of her.

Sugar Grove police investigator John Sizer said the girl told officers the driver of the van, who Sizer described as a “Hispanic or black male, about 40 years old, with a shaved head and no facial hair,” then “motioned toward the passenger seat and told her to come there.”

The girl refused, and the man drove away.

Sizer said the girl described the van as “older with a swing-out rear door with a window in it.” There was rust along the window.

After the incident, the girl then ran home, Sizer said, and told her mother, who called police.

Sizer said conversations with the girl Wednesday revealed that the girl believed she and other children saw the same man drive by a home where they were playing Sunday.

Sizer said the girl told police that the man “slowed down and looked at them, but didn’t say or do anything” before driving away.

Sizer said police cannot say whether the suspect is from Sugar Grove or elsewhere. He said he considers the attempted abduction report credible at this point, and police are investigating the incident.

Police ask anyone who may have information that could aid the investigation to contact Sugar Grove police at 630-466-4526.